For advisors

Thank you for helping your students explore and enroll in FIGs. Please follow the steps below to ensure a smooth advising and enrollment process:

Show off the FIGS. — As you meet with students on day one of SOAR, please talk with them about First-Year Interest Groups. Use the catalog on this website or the Big Red Binders in your advising room. Some FIGs have yellow tags in their description (both online and in the Big Red Binders) indicating that these are restricted to specific student advising groups. Only eligible students will be allowed to enroll. The Big Red Binders in your room are edited to include all of the options available for your students and will be kept up-to-date throughout SOAR by the FIGs peer advisors.

Check open seats. — If a student is interested in a particular FIG and you determine that it is a good fit for them, please consult the real-time open-seats report (through our SOAR Wiki page) to determine whether space is currently available. We account for seats differently than SIS and enroll.wisc.edu, so please rely on our open-seats report.

Request a seat. — When a student wants to enroll in a FIG, have them fill out the “Choose your First-Year Interest Group” form during their advising session. Through this form they will be holding a place in that FIG until day two of SOAR.

Wait lists. — If a FIG is full, students can join its wait list by using the “Choose your First-Year Interest Group” form. FIGs that currently do not have open seats will be marked as “WAITLISTED” within the form. We contact wait-listed students directly when a seat is available for them.

Enroll in classes. — After students check with their advising room on the morning of day two, they need to come to the FIGs consultants’ area on the third floor of College Library to finish their authorization to enroll in their FIG. After they are authorized, they will return to their advising room to enroll in all their classes, including the FIG. Students do not need a Golden Ticket to meet with FIG consultants.

Thank you for all your contributions to students participating in a First-Year Interest Group!

Please navigate to the FIGs page on the SOAR wiki to view the current open seats report. This is a real-time sheet showing how many seats for each FIG are still available for students. It will also show how many students are currently waitlisted for a full FIG. Feel free to bookmark it — you’ll use it often.